


I'm An Exception

by cellabrations



Category: No Fandom
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-12
Updated: 2019-09-21
Packaged: 2020-10-14 23:40:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20609255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cellabrations/pseuds/cellabrations
Summary: here is the first chapter of a story i have written after a momentary burst of creative energy. i haven't written in 5/6 years so it might be a little rough! this is only the first chapter. i'm not sure how many chapters there will be, but most likely less than 10. i have no beta so all mistakes are on me. i hope u enjoy reading :))





	1. chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> here is the first chapter of a story i have written after a momentary burst of creative energy. i haven't written in 5/6 years so it might be a little rough! this is only the first chapter. i'm not sure how many chapters there will be, but most likely less than 10. i have no beta so all mistakes are on me. i hope u enjoy reading :))

A waxing gibbous moon shone bright over the dark woods. It was in the middle of winter and spring, where there was still snow on the ground, but it was slowly turning into that muddy, icy, ugly looking snow that melts when it’s picked up. The moon’s light was reflecting off of what was left of the snow, allowing the two people currently trudging through the woods a better view of where they were going.

Lilith was huffing heavily, walking backwards while dragging a heavy bag. She stepped into a patch of mud, slipping and kicking the bag off to the side. “Fuck,” she muttered. “I knew I shouldn’t have canceled my gym membership. I haven’t lifted shit this heavy since last summer.” She hastily stood back up and made a show of stretching her arms high up over her head. A smirk slowly drew itself onto her face. “Remember what we did last summer, Jax? God, I still have dreams about it. I wish we could relive it all. We were so fuckin’ badass.”

Jax could barely hear anything Lilith was saying; It all sounded like blubber to him. While she quietly reminisced, Jax stared blankly down at the bag. He had his hands clenched around the bottom, keeping his grip while she tripped every two minutes. He couldn’t even begin to imagine how damaged the item inside must be by this point. Bruises, definitely. Blood? Maybe. Did dead bodies still bleed? He should know this by now. Corpses weren’t anything new to him. He’d surely seen more than any other twenty-five-year-old.

He couldn’t help but feel like there was something wrong with what they were doing. Not in a general sense; him and Lilith had done this too many times for him to start questioning his morals. But this particular bag, the particular body inside, something didn’t feel right. His eyes raked over the shiny black plastic wrapped around the body, as if it could give him some sort of answer as to why he had a chilling feeling in his gut.

He suddenly felt too faint, and his vision got fuzzy. He felt his hands grip tighter around the ankles. _Everything was normal, everything was fine_. Shaking his head, he grounded himself and hoisted up the bottom half of the body while Lilith grabbed the top half, still musing over last summer.

_Everything was normal, everything was fine_. Jax repeated it over and over in his head until his mind drifted toward other things. Toward _Saturn_.

Jax first became acquainted with Saturn when he was visiting Oregon during late August two years ago. He was sent there by his boss to meet with Saturn, a man who had information about a possible target. Jax was used to being sent around the country to meet with random strangers to get information about other random strangers. After all, his boss was a top assassin, and it was his job to get information from people related to the possible targets to make the job simpler and less conspicuous.

What made this particular visit to Oregon special, though, was that it was the first visit he’d had to the Pacific Ocean. Or any ocean, for that matter. All these years being sent around the country, yet he never saw the ocean.

He was set to meet with Saturn at a seaside restaurant famous for lobster. When he checked in with the hostess, he was informed that their reservation did not in fact exist, and the wait time was over an hour. After a long glare at the hostess, Jax put his dark sunglasses back on and he walked out of the restaurant. He began walking toward the shore, where the tide was slowly moving closer inland.

As he stared out into the ocean, with the sun slowly drifting toward the horizon, he thought about how peaceful the world could be. It was rare that Jax ever considered any peaceful thoughts, but as he stared out at the calming waves, he couldn’t help but feel a bit relaxed. Being in nature always soothed him as a child. His mother used to have to drag him inside against his will because he just wanted one minute longer to climb one last tree.

He quickly made his thoughts focus on the task at hand. The restaurant had created a problem that Jax now had to deal with. Pulling out his phone, he saw that there hadn’t yet been any call from Saturn. _Saturn_. What kind of name was that?

Just as he was about to call him, he heard footsteps quickly approaching him from behind. He twirled around just as the person called out, “Hey, are you Black Eye?”

Jax stared at the boy. He looked young, too young to be anyone that Jax would know. “Who are you?” he asked.

“I’m Saturn. Are you Black Eye?” the boy asked again. Jax narrowed his eyes and raised a suspicious eyebrow at him. “I—I’m, uh—Dead Cat sent me? We were supposed to meet at the lobster place but they didn’t have the reservation? I assumed you walked out on the beach. I mean, where else would you have gone?” the boy rattled out. “Are you—are you not Black Eye? My mistake, man.”

“I am,” Jax said. There was a long moment of silence before Jax continued, “You look a little young to be involved in stuff like this.”

Saturn looked relieved. “Yeah, well, so do you.”

“Excuse me?” Jax asked.

Saturn immediately tensed up again. “You—you just look like you’re young too, you know? I usually meet with older guys, in their forties maybe. You don’t look like you’re forty, that’s what I meant. I wasn’t trying to be dis—disrespectful or something…” Saturn trailed off. Jax stared down at him, keeping his face stoic. There was another long moment of silence. Saturn cleared his throat and wrung his hands. “The sun is setting, you know, I don’t know why you’re still wearing sunglasses.”

Jax heaved a big sigh, stared out at the setting sun over the horizon, and deliberately kept his sunglasses on. He stared out at the waves for a while, pointedly not looking at Saturn. “We’re here to talk about Thomas Peters.”

“Yeah, yeah. What do you need to know?”

While talking with Saturn for the next forty-five minutes getting all of the information he needed, Jax noticed that the initial blabbering that he did slowly turned into a more focused and particular way of talking. He gave Jax every bit of information that he needed without question. It was interesting for Jax; usually people started questioning him, wondering why he needed to know all of this information on their family member/friend/significant other/coworker/et cetera. He was usually working undercover, per se. He pretended to be some sort of lawyer or friend, or anything other than an assassin. Dead Cat usually gave him a quick backstory that he could give to his subject if they asked, but in this particular situation, Dead Cat told him not to worry about it. Jax didn’t question him. But it definitely was odd.

Saturn almost seemed keen on telling Jax everything on the possible target. He definitely gave more information than needed at some points, but Jax listened. He did wonder how Saturn knew the target. Clearly, he was in on some sort of criminal organization, since the stories he told about Thomas involved drugs, murder, or sex trafficking. There was no way that Saturn could be in on such a thing. Jax only knew him for a short amount of time, but the boy didn’t seem like he could harm any living thing, let alone a person.

But it wasn’t Jax’s job to ask personal questions. His job was to ask questions that only had to do with the every day routine of Thomas Peters. His job was to get information to make Dead Cat’s job easier. That’s all he needed to focus on.

After Jax was done with his smooth questioning and was about to leave, Saturn stared at him hard. “You guys are going to…you know…” His voice trailed off.

Jax raised an eyebrow at him. “We’re going to…?”

“Like, you know, you and Dead Cat or whoever…you’re going to get rid of,” he cleared his throat quietly, “you’re going to get rid of Thomas Peters?”

Jax had never seen someone grasp so hard for words. He stared long at the young boy’s face. His golden eyes had some sort of odd hopefulness in them. Jax took off his sunglasses to fully stare at him. “Yes. We will.”

Saturn nodded, gave a half smile, and looked out at the horizon. Jax also looked back out at the horizon and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. He silently offered one to Saturn, who gave a full smile this time, and they smoked and watched the night turn from twilight to darkness.


	2. chapter two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> short chapter! no beta, any mistakes are mine oops!

Jax and Lilith met up in the Seattle airport shortly after their respective consultations. Lilith was practically jumping out of her skin by the time that they reached their terminal waiting area.

“Alright, what’s up with you?” Jax asked her, sinking down into the uncomfortable seat.

“What do you mean what’s up with me?” she asked, twirling a strand of dark red hair between her fingers.

“I mean what’s got you all worked up? You seem nervous or something.” Normally, he wouldn’t pay much attention to Lilith. She was usually always giddy, a little too excited to be doing jobs like this, as far as Jax was concerned. But this time, there was something else underlying her excitement. She couldn’t seem to hold back little smiles crossing her face, and she had braided and then unbraided her hair about seven times in the past twenty minutes.

“Nervous, ha! I’m excited, Jax. I’ve never been more excited in my life.” She looked at him expectantly, like he was supposed to know what she was talking about. He stared at her blankly. “Have you talked to Dead Cat since your…consultation?”

_Shit_. “No,” he muttered, pulling out his phone. _Shit!_ Two missed calls! Jax knew it was trouble if he had one missed call from Dead Cat. But two? He couldn’t even imagine how much trouble he would be in. How could he have forgotten to check his phone after his consultation?

He got up, feeling Lilith’s eyes burn into the back of his head. Sitting as far away from other passengers as possible, Jax dialed Dead Cat’s number and winced as he hit “call”.

“Black Eye.” The low voice on the other line remained emotionless.

“Yes, Dead Cat,” Jax responded.

“What is your current location?”

“Seattle airport, sir.”

“Good. Listen carefully. Something has come up. I am unable to take care of Thomas Peters. The plane you are boarding will not take you back to Colorado; it will take you to the Portland airport. I will meet you there. I will be giving you and Purple Fog the information and proper materials to deal with Mr. Peters. You two will be taking care of him.”

Jax felt himself go lightheaded and cold. _What?_ Him and Lilith were going to _take care_ of Thomas Peters? “Understood, sir.”

“And Black Eye? When I call you, you pick up the phone. When I call you twice, you know goddamn well you better be picking up that phone. You will not be told again.”

The line clicked off. Jax let out a shaky breath and let his head fall into his hands. _Him and Lilith were going to _take care_ of Thomas Peters?_


	3. chapter three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here is the 3rd chapterrrrr B)

_Black Eye. Yeah, what a fitting code name._ Jax thought as he stared at himself in the mirror. His left eye was blue and puffy with a small cut on the edge. His right eye was slightly sunken in, but that was nothing new. He felt like he would never get rid of the puffy, dark bags under his eyes. His gray, hooded eyes did nothing to help his overall depressing aesthetic.

Him and Lilith had met with Dead Cat, who gave them chilling instructions on how to assassinate Thomas Peters. Lilith had been eager to listen and take notes. She’d always been the suck up, which meant she was always the favorite. Jax had never cared so much. He could tell that Dead Cat wished that Jax could be the one who was so engrossed in every little detail of an assassination. After all, he was the older child; Dead Cat’s first and only son. He should have been some sort of warrior, someone who could listen to his father with reverence and follow every instruction perfectly.

But that wasn’t who he was. Obviously, as he dabbed the cut with alcohol, that wasn’t who he was. He missed those two phone calls, and this is what he got in return. He was used to it by now. This was how he made up for his mistakes to Dead Cat, at least that was what he was told for the most part of his life. “If only you could follow directions, Black Eye. If only you could learn from Purple Fog, Black Eye. If only you could do your job correctly, Black Eye. _If only you could have been a good son, Jaxon!_” his father’s cold, emotionless voice echoed through his head.

This was how he was raised. This was the life he was used to. Take orders, follow directions. He could imagine any other life that he wanted, but that wouldn’t make it a reality. He learned at a young age that his wishes for a new life would never be granted. He was destined to live this life blindly with Lilith. There would never be peace. There would never be happiness. There would never be love.

Jax splashed freezing cold water on his face, collapsed onto the lumpy motel bed, and fell into a restless sleep.

-

Lilith’s bright blue eyes held so much anticipation in them that Jax could barely look at her. She wouldn’t stop chattering on about how nervous she was; how she couldn’t believe that this was actually going to happen; how she had dreamed about this since she was a kid. Jax ran a hand over his face and almost scoffed at her last comment. It only confirmed his thoughts about how sad their childhood truly was. What kind of kid wants to grow up to be an assassin? Jax remembered thinking that astronauts were cool when he was a kid. Only occasionally did he let himself indulge in these childhood fantasies, as they usually left him with some sort of deep emptiness in his soul, and he didn’t know how much more desolate feelings he could harbor.

They had been camping out in their black Taurus for two hours now. They were waiting for the red BMW to arrive at the house across the block. That was the cue to wait ten minutes, exit the car, and enter the house. Thomas Peters would be caught off guard, they’d get the job done, and they’d leave. Simple.

Jax’s hands were clammy as he squeezed them together. He was trying to take discreet deep breaths and pretending to not notice the heavy piece of metal in his sweatshirt pocket. Sure, he’d shot a gun before, he’d shot his first gun when he was nine years old. But shooting an actual person? That’s another story. He’d gone more than twenty years avoiding that situation. Perhaps tonight he could continue avoiding it. If Lilith was as excited to kill a human being as she seemed, then she could take the lead. He’ll intervene if he needed to.

“You’re breathing so loud,” Lilith said, drumming her hands on the steering wheel. She stared at him hard. “What’s your problem? Why do you look like you’re going to pass out?”

Jax closed his eyes and shook his head. “I don’t know how you’re not anxious. You’re just…cool with killing a person?”

“Yeah, I’m cool with killing a person,” she mocked him. “Seriously, you’re actually nervous?”

Jax didn’t respond.

“I don’t understand you. This is what we’ve worked for for our whole lives! Is this not a milestone for you?”

“Jesus, Lilith—”

“Purple Fog!”

“Whatever. I just don’t understand how this is all some sort of game for you. You’re so excited to pick out clothes for us. Clothes for us to murder someone in! You dye your hair dark red because it reminds you of blood! Is that not a little fucked up?” Jax’s eyes had gone wild at this point. His eye throbbed in pain and he felt like maybe he could cry. He wouldn’t, of course.

Lilith started twirling her hair and stared at him like he was the crazy one. “I don’t get you. We’ve been doing this for so long. Why is this time so different?”

“Because this time we have to look at the person that’s going to die by our hands! We’re going to have to look them in the eye and kill them, Lil—Purple Fog! It was easier when all we had to do before was…get information and clean up Dead Cat’s mess.” Jax started running out of steam and spoke quietly. “This is…different. This is personal.”

Lilith snapped her gum and looked away. “Well, that’s your problem. You’re not supposed to make it personal. This guy is a murderer, a rapist, a drug lord. We’re doing the world a favor by taking him out.”

Jax nodded, took a long drag off of his cigarette, and stared unfocused at the sky. As the red BMW pulled into the driveway, Jax clenched and unclenched his jaw while Lilith breathed a single deep sigh. There was no getting out of this now.


End file.
